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ERVICES AND IIDDRESSES 



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Unveiling of the Statue 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



R O O K L Y N , N . Y. , 



October 21st., 1869. 




PUBLISHED BY 



THE WAR FUND COMMITTEE. 



R O O K L Y N : 

1869. 



Committee on :]?iJonumenl. 



JAME8 P. Wallace, 
J. S. T. Stbanahan, 
James How, Jr., 
Isaac H. Fkothingham. 
DwiGHT Johnson, 
George S. Stephenson, 
Benjamin F. Delano, 
Elias Lewis, Jr., 



Committee on (^elebi;ation. 



[The above Committee, and ; ] 
A. Abbott Low, 
Walter S. Griffith, 
George L. Nichols, 
Luther B. Wtman, 
James H. Frothingham, 
Lyman S. Burnuam, 
John B. Woodward. 










Statue of Abraham Lincoln. 



At the first meeting of tlie "War Fund Committee" of the 
city of Brooklyn, after the assassination of President Lincoln 
— a meeting held on the 22d of April, 18G5 — ^it was resolved 
to open a subscription, for the erection of some suitable and 
permanent memorial, in the city, of him for whom the Nation 
was in mourning. No contribution of more than One Dollar 
was to be received from any person, that all might have 
equal opportunity to take part in this work of public grati- 
tude ; and the Executive Committee was empowered and in- 
structed to carr}'^ the resolution into immediate effect. 

Subscription books were opened, accordingly ; aiid, in a 
short time, twelve tuousand nine hundred and fifty-nine 
names had been attached to them, each of which represented 
one dollar contributed to the object. The entire sum, so re- 
ceived, was at once invested in United States bonds; and it 
was afterwards increased, by interest and l)y premiums, to the 
total amount of Fifteen Thousand Dollars. 

It was subsequently resolved to appropriate the whole 
amount to the erection of a Statue, in bronze, to be executed 
by the distinguished sculptor, Mr. Henry K. Brown : — the 
War Fund Committee assuming all the incidental expenses 
connected with securing and collecting the subscriptions. 

The necessary contracts were at once made; and the Sta- 



tuc was completed by Mr. Brown, and accepted by tlie Com- 
mittee, in March, 1808.* 

An arratigement had been i)revionsly made with the Brook- 
lyn Park Commissioners, by which they were to allot a place 
and erect a snita])le base for tlie Statue, in the plaza at the 
western entrance of Prospect Park, and were to assume the 
permanent custody of it, after it should be erected. But it 
w^as found to be impossible to complete the needful prelimi- 
nary operations for placing it on an appro[»riate i^edestal, and 
niiveiliiiii; it to the public, until October, 18(!9. 

On the 21st of that month, in the presence of many invited 
guests, of the Twenty -third Ptegiment of the New York State 
National Guard, and of an immense multitude of interested 
spectators, the ceremonies appropriate to this service occurred, 
— the first Statue, of bronze, was erected in honor of President 
Lincoln, in an American City, and the War Fund Committee 
completed the discharge of its im])ortant and delicate trust. 



The order of exercises on the occasion was as follows : 
After appropriate music from the Navy Yard band, — whose 
aid had been politely furnished to the Committee by the 
Commandant of the Navy Yard, Admiral S. W. Godon— Mr. 
A. Abbott Low% who had been requested by the Committee to 
preside at the ceremony, opened the services with tlie follow- 
ino; Address : — 



*The Statue is eight feet and a half, in heipfht. It presents a faithful like- 
ness of the figure and the features of President Lincoln, and represents him as 
standing, draped in a cloak, with his head uncovered, holding in his left 
hand a scroll, while pointing with the right hand to these Avords, inscribed 
upon the scroll, from the Emancipation Proclamation : — " Shall be then, 
thenceforward, and forever free." 

The pedestal is of polished Scotch granite, with these inscriptions and em- 
blems carved upon its sides : On the east and west, wreaths enclose the letters 
" U. S. A.," and " U. S. N ;" on the south, an eagle holds a shield, in the centre 
of which is the City seal — a female figure, holding an axe supported by reeds, 
with the motto, " Eendraght Maakt Maght ;" on the north, is an eagle, with 
a broken shackh; in liis talons. 



Fellow Citizens: — In the eventful year 1865, the 
War Fund Committee of Brooklyn resolved to sig- 
nalize the close of their voluntary laboi's, l)y erecting a 
monument to the memory of the lamented patriot and 
martyr, ])y handing down to })osterity, in truthful out- 
line, the form and features of the great man who had 
successfully guided the destinies of our country through 
its nicest perilous crisis — thus Ininging art to the aid of 
history in immortalizing the name of Abraham Lincoln. 

It was at once determined to raise the necessary 
funds by a small but general sul)Scription, An appeal, 
accordingly, was addressed to the people, and the peo- 
ple responded gladly. Circumstances favored the 
movement. A sentiment of gratitude, tempered by a 
feeling of the profoundest sorrow, wrought upon the 
hearts and will of all. 

The struo:2:le for the nation's life was over. The 
flag of the Union everywhere waved in triumph, and 
the return of peace was hailed with universal delight. 
While transports of joy, and the cheers of the loyal, 
were resounding throughout the North, the death of 
the President was unexpectedly announced, and the 
shout of triumph was changed into a wail of mourning ! 
The people wept ! 

And now the lessons of the war ^veve rehearsed anew. 

The providence of God, in the events of the war, was 
in every mind, and on every tongue. 

Memory recalled the time, less than five years before, 
when a man, in stature like unto Saul, was summoned 
from an ol)scure sphere in life, to fill the highest office 
in the gift of the people. 

The popular vote had been cast amid forebodings 
of evil, and the future was to witness their worst reali- 
zation. The President-elect would be the head of the 



Army and Navy, and few of all the people knew their 
appointed leader. The foes of the Union were exultant. 
War speedily followed the inauguration; and, at the 
close of that war, a name so lately unknown had be- 
come illustrious in the annals of our country. The 
fame thereof had spread throughout all the nations of 
the world ; and when tidings of Abraham Lincoln's 
death went forth, words of condolence and eulogy came 
back from courts and kino-doms in such measure as to 
fill a capacious volume. The compilation forms a 
priceless treasure in the Department of State, at the 
Capitol of the nation. 

And thus it came to pass that as, in the earlier days 
of the Republic, God raised up Washington to be, as 
he was justly styled, " the Father of his Country," so, 
in these later days, God raised up Lincoln, to be our 
country's deliverer. Washington gave to the States of 
the Union independence, and a standing among the 
nations. Lincoln put down a formidable rebellion, 
turned away the curse of slavery, and left the States 
united and free. 

Lincoln was the Providential man of our time. 
To perpetuate his memory is our grateful duty ; to raise 
a statue to the honor of his name, is a just tribute of 
affection to the worth and wisdom of the lamented 
patriot, who died, as he had lived, for his country ! 
We thus manifest our gratitude to God, for His gift of 
a life so precious. 

The delay which has occurred is not to be misunder- 
stood, as manifesting a want of zeal on the part of the 
Committee who have had the work in charge. It was 
early committed to one of your gifted townsmen, was 
long since perfected, and has been waiting the conveni- 
ence of the Park Commissioners, under whose direction 



the pedestal has been prepared on which the Statue is 
henceforth to stand. It seemed to be most fitting and 
])roper that on tliis spot, destined ere long to be the 
centre of a vast city, this monument should be erected ; 
that all our citizens, who gather from time to time in 
this plaza, and look upon the form and features of this 
central figure, may be led to ponder the example of the 
great original ; to recall, with gratitude, the good he 
did, and the impress that he made on his age and gen- 
eration ; tliat here, beneath this Statue, before entering 
upon the paths of pleasure now opening to our view, 
the vow niay be renewed by all, faithfully to maintain, 
and loyally to uphold, the Union and the Government 
established by our Fathers. 

Let us hope that as the waters which supply the 
fountain by our side, whose source is far distant, are 
made to flow out and penetrate every house and home 
in our city, so there will go forth from this spot, hal- 
lowed by precious thoughts and memories, an influence 
that shall animate and strengthen all hearts ; that this 
influence may descend from generation to generation, 
advancing whatever is worthy of emulation in the past 
or present. So our work of to-day shall be blest. 

From the lips of another you will presently be called 
t<^ contemplate the influence exerted upon our own age 
by the life and death of him whose virtues we seek to 
commemorate — whose loss we cease not to deplore. 
The same voice, alwaj^s welcome to our ears, was heard 
not long since in glowing eulogy at the funeral obse- 
quies of the departed. 

We have come here to-da}^ by invitation of the War 
Fund Committee, to take part in the consummation of 
this long-cherished purpose ; to celebrate, with appro- 



pi'iate ceremonies, the unveiling of the statue of our hite 
lamented President, Abraham Lincoln. 

The President of the United States, the Governor of 
the State of New York, the Mayor and Common Coun- 
cil of our city, Judges of the respective courts, officers 
of the army and navy, soldiers and sailors who shared 
in the perils and in the glories of the war, and all ^vho 
contributed to the erection of this monument, have 
been asked to be present, to witness the transfer of this 
gift of the people to the city of their pride, and, on the 
part of the Park Commissioners, to whose charge it is 
to be committed, the acceptance of this sacred trust. 

Permit me, in concluding these introductory remarks, 
to associate with the rich memories of this hour, and of 
this occasion, the ever-memorable words uttered by 
Mr. Lincoln at the close of his second inaugural — the 
last, I believe, publicly addressed by him to the Amer- 
ican people. They will endure longer than bronze, 
however imperishable it seems. What Ijetter inscrip- 
tion can be put upon this monument ? 

" With malice towards none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the 
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to 
bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans, 
to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and 
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." 



At the conelnsion of Mr. Low's Address, the strings attach- 
ed to the cloth envelopinc^ the Statue were loosened by the 
Sculptor, Mr. Brown, and the noble nieniori;d of the lamented 
President was instantly unveiled, amid the cheers of the sjjec- 
tators, and the thunders of the National Salute from a battery 
on the adjacent hill. 



Mr. James P. Wallace, Chairman of the Committee to wliicli 
had been entrusted the responsibility of ])roeni in i;- designs for 
the statue, and of making the final contract for the work, was 
then introduced by Mr. Low, and formally ])resented tlie 
statue, on behalf of the War Fund Committee, to the Park 
Commissionei's, in the following Address: — 

Me. Chairman, Ladies, and Gtentlemen: — ^I have 
the honor on this occasion to represent a two-fold con- 
stituency. 

First : — about thirteen thousand citizens of Brooklyn, 
without distinction of creed or political faith, men, wo- 
men and children, who, for the love they bore to a great 
and good man, made up a contribution to honoi* his 
memory. Fi'om the laborer on the highway, from the 
workshop, from the counting-room and store, from the 
stately mansion of the wealthy, and from the scanty 
apartments of the industrious poor, wherever reverence 
and love for Abraham Lincoln thrilled the heart, or 
wherever was detestation and horror at the dreadful 
deed which so suddenly terminated his useful life, — 
thence came the little di'ops into the treasury ; a name 
with every dollar, and a dollar for every name. Noble 
men ! noble women ! Names fragrant to the memory ; 
worthy to be yu'eserved — as they have been preserved, 
in the archives of the Historical Society — that all who 
come after may know to whom belongs the honor of 
building up this monument to Abraham Lincoln ! 

My second constituency is a body of prominent pat- 
riotic citizens, who banded too-ether during^ the war, 
and contributed freely of their time, of their influence, 
and of their means, in support of the Government, — 
whose praise is in every mouth, and who are known as 
the War Fund Committee of the City of Brooklyn. 



10 

Under the auspices of that Committee, Vjooks were 
opened for subscription immediately after the assassin- 
ation. Not more than one dollar was received from any 
person, that we might have pre-eminently a People's 
Monument; and the Committee bear testimony to the 
alacrity with which our citizens responded to the call. 

The Committee also bear testimony to the faithful 
management of their Treasurer, who not only kept 
safely his whole trust, but so invested it as to make the 
$13,000 contributed earn $2,000 more, — which sums 
together make the amount expended for this statue. 

The Committee also bear testimony to the liberality 
of oar local press, which, without reward, except in the 
consciousness of doing a good deed, used its mighty 
influence to fan the flame of patriotism, and encourage 
contributions to this noble object. 

And especiall}^ the Committee bear testimony to the 
skill and ability of the sculptor, H. K. Brown, whose 
works of art adorn Greenwood, and Union Square, and 
the National Capitol at Washington, with many other 
places of lesser note ; and who, with long and patient 
laboi', has produced this bronze statue, which portrays 
the likeness and characteristics of our late lamented 
President with such fidelity as to excite the admiration 
and hio;h satisfaction of our best critics. 

And now it becomes my duty — as it is my pleasure 
— in the name of the War Fund Committee, formally 
to request the Brooklyn Park Commissioners, of whom 
[to Mr. Stranahan] you, Sir, are the honored President, 
to accept in perpetuity the custody of this statue of 
Abraham Lincoln, to love, to cherish and protect it, 
during all the days of your authority. 

May it ever stand here, looking out over our fair 
city, where it will hold in review the millions who 



11 

will visit this l)eautiful Park, and where our citizens, 
and the people of every name, as they come up those 
broad avenues, and look toward the rising sun, will 
ever be reminded of the pure, the noble, the patriotic 
Abraham Lincoln. 

May his life and his character be a model to our- 
selves and to our children, and to all who would aspii-e 
to influence and position in our land. May the union 
of all the States, and universal Lil)erty — which he 
loved, and which it was his highest earthly aim to pre- 
serve — ever l)e dear to the hearts of his countrymen ! 
And may all the people, of the East and the West, of 
the North and the South, feel themselves to be one 
people, with one common interest, only emulating each 
other in their love for the old flag, and for their whole 
country, and for their whole country's good ! 



On behalf of tlie Park Coinmissioneivs, Hon. J. S. T. 
Sti'anahan, their President, responded to the presentation ad- 
dress of Mr. Wallace, as follows : — 

Gentlemen or the War Fund Committee: — The 
Park Commissioners have selected in this, the main en- 
trance to Prospect Park, three positions, as in their 
judgment affording approj)riate localities for the erec- 
tion of as many statues, as memorials of three of the 
eminent men whose lives are intimately identified 
with the great struggles in our country's history. 

In one of these positions they hoj)e to see a statue 
of George Washington : who on this ground fought 
his first battle in the war of the Revolution, and 
whose services as Commander-in-chief of the Revolu- 
tionary army, and subsequently as President of these 
United States, have not only entitled him to the 



12 

Nation's gratitude, but have secured for his name the 
enduring respect and veneration of mankind. In the 
second position they hope to see the statue of Andrew 
Jackson : distinguished among the illustrious heroes 
who appeared in the War of 1812, not less distinguish- 
ed as the Chief Magistrate of this Nation, and in both 
relations evincing a devotion to the unity, integrity, 
and prosperity of his country, alike unquestioned and 
unquestionable. It remains for the generous prompt- 
ings of public feeling to give reality to these ideas and 
hopes of the Park Commissioners. 

In respect to the third position, the events of this 
day, and the ceremonies of this occasion, tell their own 
story. Soon after the assassination of Abraham Lin- 
coln the popular heart glowed with an irrepressible 
desire to do honor to the memory of the lamented 
dead. Called to the Presidency amid circumstances of 
the greatest difficulty ; confronted, in the very outset 
of his career, with the embarrassments, complications, 
and perils of an incipient civil war ; contending, 
during the whole of his term of service, with one of 
the most formidable rebellions known in the history 
of nations; in these exigencies of peculiar trial con- 
ducting the Government with a discretion, perseve- 
rence, firmness, and patriotic devotion, that proved him 
to be the man for the hour ; re-elected, for a second 
term, by a grateful and appreciating people ; living till 
the victories of the army and navy had brought the 
country to the verge of peace, and then falling too soon 
for the Nation's good — Abraham Lincoln has wrought 
for himself a name, and gained a place in the affections 
of the American people, more lasting than any memo- 
rial which it is in the power of art to devise. 

As one significant evidence of this fact, I point to 



13 

that noble statue wliicli lias just been unveiled to tlie 
public, wliieh you have now presented to the Park 
Commissioners as Brooklyn's tribute of gratitude to the 
honored dead, and which, in their name, I have the 
pleasure to accept — pledging to you, and to all the citi- 
zens of Brooklyn, that they w^ill endeavor to be faith- 
ful custodians of the sacred trust. Here let this 
monument stand, with the other two to which reference 
has been made, and which it is hoped will soon be 
erected, — suggesting to the thousands who may here- 
after seek the recreations of this Park, that nobleness 
of character, pureness of heart, and eminent service for 
the public good, are alike the best qualities of the citi- 
zen, and the surest guarantees for the permanent respect 
of the Nation. 

At the close of Mr. Stranalian's Address, these letters 
were read, from President Grant, and Governor Hoffman. 

Washington, D. C, Oct. 18, 1869. 
Sir: — I am in receipt of your letter requesting me to be 
present at the unveilino; of the Lincoln Monument at Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., on the 21st inst. 

It would afford me great pleasure to accept your very cor- 
dial invitation, but I find that my official duties will not per- 
mit me to be absent from the capital at that time. 
Very respectfully, 

U. S. Grant. 
James P. Wallace, Esq. 

Albany, Oct. 17, 1869. 
Dear Sir : — I regret, exceedingly, that your invitation to 
attend the ceremony of the unveiling of the monument to the 
late President, Abraham Lincoln, has been received too late 
to enable me to make my arrangements to accept. It would 
give me great pleasure to be present, if circumstances w^ould 
permit. Yours respectfully, 

John T. Hoffman. 
James P. Wallace, Chairman of Committee. 



14 

The Rev. E-ichard S. Storrs, Jr., D. D., — who had been in- 
vited by tlie Committee to prepare a discourse ap]>ropriate to 
the inauo^iiration of the Statue — was then introduced by tlie 
President, and delivered the following Address :— 

Fellow- Citizens : — We are assembled to-day to re- 
joice together in the completion of a work, honorable 
for the tender and grateful impulse in which it origin- 
ated ; honorable, for the cheerful fidelity and zeal with 
which it has been carried to its present consummation ; 
honorable we doubt not, for the influence that shall 
flow from it, into the Future. More than four years 
after his death — in a city which he had rarely entered 
— on heights which his foot had never trodden — by the 
voluntary contributions of thousands of persons, most 
of whom certainly never had seen him, unless in his 
cofiin, and many of whom had been his earnest politi- 
cal opponents — this statue is erected to Abraham 
Lincoln. 

As a work of art, it is its own advocate. As a me- 
morial of him, we could nOt wish it other than it is. 
The skillful hand of the accomplished sculptor has 
moulded the solid yet ductile metal into the very sim- 
ilitude of the man. The tall, gaunt, undisciplined fig- 
ure — the kindly, impressive, rough-hewn face, sad at 
times as almost no other was ever sad, yet kindled 
again with illuminating smiles, and always sagacious, 
ge title, patient, seamed with reflection, solicitude, sor- 
row, but never with evil lust or passion — they here are 
before us, almost as if he whom they marked were 
present ; and our children's children shall see on this 
pedestal, while the granite and the bronze fulfil their 
office, the imag-e of him who wrote the words to which 
his steady finger points. 



15 

It is the first statue, of such material, raised by 
spontaneous gifts from the people, to commemorate 
him in the land which he ruled, and among the cities 
whose streets were shrouded at his death. It is a fit 
occasion of pleasure and pride to us that the purpose 
to erect it, which sprang up simultaneously with the 
tidings of his death, has thus among us been accom- 
plished, and that here henceforth it is to stand ; on the 
summit crest of our expanding and beautiful city ; on 
a spot consecrated, more than ninety years since, by 
the patriot blood which then so freely and so fruitful- 
ly fell ; overlooking the homes and working-places of 
a million and a half of the American people ; looking 
out upon the bay, through which passes so large and 
rich a portion of the commerce of the world. 

In all respects is its position a fit one. There is no 
impropriety, but an obvious harmony, in placing the 
memorial of him whom we honor at a point where we 
pass in full view of it, and almost beneath its very 
shadow, so often as we seek the beauty and delight of 
that superb Park which spreads before us. Those 
glades, and lawns, and water-courses, those nestling 
nooks and winding drives, those swelling hills and 
meadow-reaches, the emerald sod, and the forests now 
gleaming in the splendors of Autumn, are all fresh 
witnesses of what we owe to him whose statue we 
here place. Out of his wrestle and wear of soul, and 
of theirs who wrought with him, through those fierce 
years which were closed with his death, has come the 
abundant and wide prosperity which makes this plea- 
sure-ground our possession. Because he suffered, we 
enjoy. He staggered under loads of obligation and of 
care, that we might afterward live at ease. And if 
the burdens which he wearily bore, and bore to the 



16 

end, had been lightened by trick or by treachery in 
him, there had been for us no solid peace, and no se- 
cure pleasure. 

There was something in him, too — there is some- 
thing still in the remembrance of him — peculiarly in 
sympathy with any healthful and innocent pleasure ; 
especially with any which is shared, as is this, by all 
classes of the people. Many other statues might be 
placed here, of men whom it were well to commemo- 
rate. One statue, I trust, will be placed here, ere 
long, as this has been, by the hands of the people — of 
him whose earlier work for the country inspires always 
profounder homage, as history exhil)its its great pro- 
portions above the receding yet watchful years, and 
whose fame in the world makes America renowned, as 
the Country of Washington. 

But many statues of men eminent in our annals 
would be at least as appropriate elsewhere, as where 
men seek their social reci-eation. And some might 
seem rather to cast a shadow on yonder scenes, than 
to add to their sunny grace and glow. But this of 
Lincoln — it tells us, indeed, of great national emergen- 
cies, patiently, skilfully, victoriously met. It tells us 
of a fortitude that never was broken, and a wisdom 
that only grew greater to the end. But it reminds us 
also, and always, of a spirit so genial, so humorous, so 
pathetic, that joys of others were beautiful to it ; that 
to soothe their sorrows, and to heighten their plea. 
sures, was its impulse and rule. And instinctively we 
feel that if his spirit could re-appear, to animate this 
impassive bronze, a cordial greeting would break from 
it, to all who passed ; that the poor, and the humble, 
clustered about it, would catch from it words of kind, 
ly cheer ; that children would l)e touched by it, with 



17 

tenderest hands; that the aged would l)e hailed, with 
reverent salutation ; and that the crowds gathered in- 
tent before its front would hear, as of old, sagacious, 
persuasive, and liberal counsels, whose logic was illu- 
mined, and their lesson re-enforced, by some quaint 
story. 

Here, therefore, let it appro]^riately stand : — at the 
gates of the gi'ound where the city takes its pleasure ; 
amid the currents of sparkling and rejoicing life which 
through the years shall here flow brightly back and 
forth ! Let it stand, not for one year, or for ten years, 
alone, or for one generation, but while the city itself 
continues; while the hills remain on tlieir ancient 
foundations ; while yonder sea does not as yet give up 
its dead ! Let the dews and rains of heaven fall on it, 
with their silent or soundino- benediction ! Let the 
l)loonis of Spring, and the rainl)OW glories which crown 
the year, wreathe their successive garlands around it ! 
Let the city, as it sweeps more widely outwaid, only 
seem to fold it in a more intimate embrace ! And let 
the rays of the westering sun, seeking the regions which 
gave him to us, linger and play upon the figure which 
here henceforth shall lift its lines to tell men what, in 
outward 23resentment, Lincoln was ! 

But there are purposes fulfilled in erecting tliis stat- 
ue, which give to this service a moral significance ; 
through relation to which the occasion becomes one of 
general interest. It is no civic vanity, it is no State 
pride, it is no narrow enthusiasm for party, which has 
raised this memorial of one not otherwise related to us 
than to all the States of the Republic ; of one who has 
so long passed from the earth that his influence over 
parties has become imperceptible. The people have 
reared it, l)ecause they loved him ; because they recog- 



nized in liiiii a friend, wliose temper and thought were 
in harmony with their own; w^hose humor attracted, 
and whose simplicity charmed, while his power sus- 
tained them ; who would have been at home in any of 
their houses, yet to whom they had gladly twice con- 
fided unequal ed trusts ; w^hose death smote their hearts 
with a personal grief. 

They have raised it, in grateful recognition of his 
service, — in that immense w^ork, prolific in benefits to 
themselves and their children, which he in large meas- 
ure directed and inspired. 

They have raised it, bemuse they have felt instinc- 
tively, with a quick and wdde consciousness, that he 
whom they honored Avas in many respects a true rep- 
resentative of the faculty and the s^^irit of the Natitm 
which he served ; and because they desired that an 
influence from his striking and peculiar personality 
should be disseminated, and be perpetuated, among 
those w^ho hereafter shall look upon this enduring like- 
ness of his features and form. 

He stands as an exponent of wdiat the American life 
can produce, Avdthout foreign assistance. Uncultured 
as he was by school or college, his whole school -life 
hardly covering a year — trained only by reflection, by 
honest labor, and by intercourse with men — ancient 
literatures, renowned universities, the arts and pow'ers 
of European culture, can claim no part, or only a re- 
mote and im2:)alpable part, in what he became. Indeed 
nothing can claim to have helped him much, except 
the text-books which are familiar to all, and the atmos- 
phere of freedom, and the incentives to labor, which 
were his only inheritance. Born in the humldest con- 
ditions of life, but of a Christian father and mother — 
stirred in childhood by stories of the perilous border 



19 



life, the bloody fiinges of whose retiring robes had 
hardly vanished 1)eyond the horizon— reading, when 
he could read, by the light of pine-knots, in the Bil)le, 
Esop's Fables, and Pilgrim's Progress— coming on only 
later to Burns and Shakspeare— talking in clubs, argu- 
ing in courts, writing for newspapers, pleading at last 
for what he deemed truth before attentive assemblages 
of men, but never matriculated in any academy, and 
never master of any language save that which he had 
learned in childhood— if any man represents, better than 
others who have been eminent in office among us, the 
native American faculty and training, this is the man ! 
A power, indeed, from all the Past had descended 
upon him, as it must on every ingenuous child born 
into a Christian civilization ; from churches, and schools, 
and homes of others; from arts, discoveries, popular 
refoi'ms ; from every scene of patriot struggle, and of 
heroic effort and sacrifice. But this was his, in no 
peculiar sense or degree. And it had entered so 
silently and secretly into his life that no pen can ex- 
hiV)it, and no eye can trace it. The country claims 
him, therefore, as its outgrowth. He represents the 
influences inherent in its social and political atmos- 
phere and soil. And in the moral life which was in 
him he shows what a lad, whose Bilde was his only 
preacher, whose Christian mother was his church, may 
come to be, in a society full of temptation and of sin, 
when he tries intently to do the duty which is next to 
his hand, and looks to God for guidance and blessing. 
Remember then the large fruition of his so homely 
and frugal youth ; — what ingenuity, what deliberate- 
ness of intellectual movement, what precision of state- 
ment, what logical force, what subtle and copious men- 
tal sympathy, what a broad common- sense, even what 



20 

literary taste and skill, were developed in liim when 
occasion demanded; what patience, and justness, and 
kindliness of temper; what solicitude for friends, and 
what generous gentleness toward his foes ; what a 
confidence in the Right, what confidence in God ; — 
i'ememl)er this, and you see at a glance what must be 
the advantage of such an example, made vivid and 
eminent before those who come after. 

Its Ijeneficent power is not in the fact that it points 
to heights, of mental attainment or of moral achieve- 
ments, unreached before ; that it represents to us poetic 
genius, scientific culture, the gleam of fancy, or the in- 
sight of reason, in new and splendid exhibition ; that it 
signalizes saintship, or makes the spirit of Christian 
consecration more In'ight and familiar. 

Its power for good is in the fact that it shows how 
real and how rich may be the gain of one who has no 
especial advantages ; whose early life, rather, seems 
hedged a1)0ut with narrow restrictions, and overshad- 
owed by sombre clouds. If he, in spite of all dis- 
couragement, became, accomplished, what he did — 
there is promise in the fact, and an augury of success, 
for all who emulate his example. And while we know, 
as he knew better, that it is no fiirure of ai30stle or savant 
which stands before us — that it is that of one whose 
living and tempered clay was like our own, and whose 
soul had no strano;e whiteness in it — we know as well 
that it is that of a man who honestly labored, who 
suffered and who strove, for mental and for moral good ; 
who made himself dear and inspiring to us, because he 
turned peril itself into privilege, and wrested results of 
honor and renown from the huml)lest opportunity ! 
Therefore, in part, is his memory precious. And it is 
for the welfare of all generations, and for the true 



21 

credit of the land which gave him birth, that such an 
example should he lifted before men in unfading re- 
meml)rance ! 

But more, even, than this, is implied in the fact that 
this statue has been raised, by the hands of the people, 
to the name and the fame of Abraham Lincoln. They 
who have done this have not merely Ijeen moved by 
love to him, and a grateful remembrance of what he 
accomplished for themselves and their children. They 
have not been impelled by the simple desire to prolong 
and to distribute, so far as they may, the invigorating 
force of his personal example. They have done it, also, 
as challenging for him a permanent ^Aace in the history 
of Mankind. They have said, in effect, in erecting this 
statue, that in their estimation he is one of the men of 
whom other lands, and future ages, are sure to speak ; 
and that thus it is well that memorials be made of him 
as permanent in their structure as nature permits, and 
as art can attain. They have planted it here to stand 
for long. The canvas must lose the brightness of its 
colors. Its very substance must turn to dust. The 
memorial building may fall by chance of fire or time; 
its caj^itals be broken; its ashlar walls be piled in heaps. 
But the bronzes of Rome have outlasted its j)alaces, 
and still present, to modern eyes, the head of Augustus 
or of Trajan. And so we mean this statue to continue : 
its l)ase of stone not soon decaying ; the tooth of time 
pressing it long, before it yields to the sharp imj)rint ; 
the metal which stands upon it remaining, untouched 
of air, or worm, or fire ; enduring, almost, as are the fea- 
tures of nature. The men of other times shall see it. 
It connects us, as we stand here, with the coming gene- 
rations. We cannot tell what great institutions shall 
have risen, and flourishea, and turned to decay, before 



22 

the figure upon this rock shall have yielded itself to 
rust and rot ! 

And so, in erecting it, we say of him whom it repre- 
sents that he is one whom the ages to be will speak of 
still, when we shall have passed, not from life alone, 
but from all human recollection ; whose name will be 
heard on people's lips when the city has been changed, 
when political establishments have been variously 
modified, and when the written records of our time shall 
have yielded their place to other annals, in other 
tongues. 

We say this ; and we are right in saying it. For as 
long as history continues to be written, some mention 
must be made in it of this remarkable American peo- 
ple — starting from such ol)scure beginnings, spreading 
across such unsurpassed spaces, adventuring on such 
new and prophetic experiments, achieving so real and 
wide a welfare, distributing an iniluence so immense 
and so vital over the earth. And as long as mention 
continues to be made of this peculiar American people, 
so long some notice must certainly be taken of that 
momentous passage in its experience, when, after a long 
and silent preparation on either side, the forces that 
fought against and for the national life came into direct 
and deadly grapple ; when the continent was fenced, by 
the flags and guns of a superb navy, for the field of the 
contest ; when armies unsurpassed, in numbers and 
equipment, sprang as wrestlers into the great arena; 
when the issue hung balanced in doubt so long ; and 
when the attentive nations of Christendom were awed 
yet eager spectators of the scene. 

Many parts in our history, w^hich have to us been 
full of interest, will gradually cease to awaken atten- 
tion, and will slip from the notice of all l)ut the most 



23 

misroscopic of students, as Time goes on. Many ques- 
tions which we yet struggle over, with strenuous, eager, 
and wide discussion, will seem mere rubbish, a century, 
two centuries, ten centuries hence. Ne^v" questions 
ai'ising will have shoved them from their place. A 
larger philosophy will have solved and dismissed them. 
But the vast rebellion, and the consequent civil war — 
which shook the nation to its bases, amid which we 
sometimes were tempted to feel that Apocalyptic pro- 
phecies were realized, that the heavens were on fire, 
and that mountains were about to slip from their seats 
into seas of blood — of this grand struggle, so fiercely 
maintained, so triumphantly ended, history will speak 
while it speaks of anything that has happened or 
been done on this side of the Atlantic. 

And so long as histoiy speaks of this, the name of 
Lincoln must be prominent in it. It cannot be other- 
wise, whether men wish it to be so or not. Ample 
libraries can now scarcely contain the wi'itings and the 
relics which bear record of the war. Books, pamphlets, 
newspapers, broad-sheets — their variety is vast, and 
their sura is immense. Generations hence, when libra- 
ries have l^een sifted, and a relentless analysis has dis- 
sected their, contents, the substance thereof shall be 
compressed into volumes. The series of volumes will 
shrink, again, into one or two. And when other ages 
have passed away, and other times are on the earth, 
the volume may be hardly more than a chapter. Per- 
haps at last the chaptei", even, will have been concen- 
trated in a paragraph or a sentence ; and that will be 
all that then tells men of the struggle at which Europe 
and America both stood aghast ! 

But no volume, or chapter, or paragraph v/ill be 
written, and no comprehensive and intelligent sentence. 



24 

summing up tie story of this prolonged strife which 
almost whelmed the State itself, in which the name of 
Lincoln, at least, shall not appear, as of the leader and 
head of the Nation, in that most fateful and critical 
time. And so the latest times on earth must still know 
something of him whose statue we unveil. We antici- 
pate the fact, in our action to-day. We know that the 
character and career we here honor have passed hence- 
forth, forevermore, out of the circle of men's present 
prepossessions, whether for or against them ; that they 
are now part of the history of Mankind ; and are to be 
adjudged, as the centuries go on, by the general con- 
science and reason of the world. And we are not 
afraid what the verdict is to be. We have no appre- 
sion as to the answer to be made to the challenge which 
his history offers to the inspection and decision of Time. 
In that passionless, exacting, and tremendous tril)unal, 
before which his spirit and his work are to go for 
analysis and judgment, all voices of the lioui' shall have 
passed into silence ; all hates and loves, of which he 
was the object, shall have sunk from sight, as last 
year's gusts and whirls of air have now subsided in the 
heavens; and the solemn adjudication shall proceed 
alone ujjon the proved intrinsic merit of the man and 
of his action. 

The verdict of the Future, looking back upon Lin- 
coln, then must be this : — 

That in a time of intense excitements, all-pervading, 
all-arousing, ^vlien feeling was passionate, apj^rehension 
vivid, the emotions of a continent preternaturally stir- 
red, and when anger easily turned to malignity, and a 
just indignation became a vindictive thirst for ven- 
geance — he kept his frank and kindly tempei' ; and in 
the midst of all the jealousies, and the fierce animosi- 



25 

ties, raging around liini, was to the end as ])atient and 
calm, as ready in sympathy, and as sweet in forgiveness, 
as if no war-storms vexed the hind. 

That in a time of immense opportunity for any dis- 
honest greed and gain, his integrity was as perfect as 
the lustre in the diamond, as the blue in the sky; that 
with millions of gold waiting his word for their secret 
distribution, he touched no penny that was not his, 
and fell in death as uncorrupt as when he entered on 
his great office. 

That in a time of prodigious, unanticipated move- 
ments, without precedent or parallel, when forces as 
wide as the country itself, as vehement as its winds, 
and as fiery as its lightnings, were loosened into tre- 
mendous collision, — when shrewdest schemes were as 
j^owerless for the crisis as bulwarks of paper against 
the whirlwind, when all the foundations seemed out of 
course, and only Omniscience could forecast the end- 
he showed an extraordinary sagacity and prudence ; 
committing himself to no peremptory theory ; availing 
himself of all men's counsel ; arguing against his own 
convictions, until he had tested their correctness; fol- 
lowing patientl}' the indications of events ; and finally 
leading the Nation which had trusted him, by ways 
untried until he trode them, from the precipice to the 
plain, and out of the thunderous uproar and gloom to 
the dawn of a bright })rophetic day. 

That when lifted to an eminence in the pul)lic con- 
fidence, and the popular regard, such as few before him 
ever had occupied, and exercising powers over armies 
and navies, over generals and peoples, which almost no 
statesmen of the world have possessed, he was strange- 
ly unexcited by such sudden and surpassing personal 
distinction ; that, intent upon his country's welfare, he 



26 

thought of himself with a singular humility ; and while 
his name at the end of a commission raised the humble 
to rank, and gave some men command over thousands 
of others, he w^as as devoid of ostentation or arrogance 
as if he had still been a boatman on the river, or the 
faithful advocate of a few obscure clients. 

That he never despaired of the future of the Repub- 
lic, amid whatever disasters or fears ; but kept through 
all his perfect faith, sublime in its simplicity, in the 
Government which protected the popuhxr rights ; in the 
principles it incoi'porated ; in the advancing civilization 
which they were to help to Imild and mould; and in 
the God, who, as he believed, w^atched over and guar- 
ded that sacred and imperial trust. 

. That he was immensely successful in his work; and 
saw the Rebellion, which had reared its haughty front 
to the sky, which had scoffed at his plans, mocked his 
power, and heaped fierce ridicule on himself, as thor- 
oughly beaten out of life as if stoi'ms of aerolites had 
smitten its armies, and mountains had fallen and l)uried 
them up ; that he saw the Nation more thoroughly one 
for the very struggle through which it had passed, and 
its place among the peoples of the world more distin- 
guished than ever, for the blood it had spilled, and the 
treason it had crushe<l. 

That he was identified with the widest movement of 
popular liberation which the world had yet seen; and, 
recognizing his opportunity, hearing the solemn voices 
of Providence, not disobeying the heavenly vision, was 
permitted and enabled to loosen the shackles from the 
limbs of a race, and to lift the millions of slaves in the 
land to a wholly new level of privilege and of right ; 
making the desert bloom before them ; setting up on 
the horizon, that had lieen lowering and red, opportu- 



27 

inties and liopns whlcli gleam on llieir eyes like gates 
of pearl. 

That lie lived to see all this success, and to feel his 
veins swelling with that rich joy which swept like a 
current of (piickening life throughout the land, and 
then died a martyr to the cause he had chanipioned ; 
sealing his sei'vice with the sacrifice of his life ; leaving 
the Nation, which he had rescued, in wildest grief; 
throwing the shadow of a strange sorrow over lands 
which he had never seen ; and seeking the rest deuied 
him here, in the ])resence of Him who had raised him 
up ! 

All these are traits, and points of ex])erience, in the 
character aud the history of Abraham Lincoln, which 
the annals of every time, to come must find and record. 
We do not mistake, and we do not exaggerate. No 
tricking glamour deceives our eyes. We are not the 
victims of our own imagination. It is no mythical 
hero oi' sage whom ^ve commemorate ; no Odin, or 
Hermann, whose form looms grander through mists of 
Time. It is a man whom we have known, and watched, 
and buried. It is no vision of ideal beauty which we 
incorpoi'ate in this statue. It is the tall, harsh-featured 
figure of one more at home on the prairie than in the 
parlor ; in the ofiSce for work, than in the boudoir. 
But V)ecause he stands near us, of our own time, and 
we have been familiar with him, hnve wholly search- 
ed and seen him through, we are less likely to lift his 
future fame in the world alcove the level which it will 
hold. His historical figure will only look grander than 
now it can, as the centuries pass. And his actual re- 
cent existence among us — with his untaught strength, 
and his humorous gentleness, the coarseness on the 
swface, and the loyal and tender fidelity of his heart, 



28 

— this is no more certain than is the fact that amon<x 
the foniiflers and restoi-ers of states his place henceforth 
is sure and high. 

What Burke said of Clive, in British India, we may, 
with only a greater emphasis, say of Lincoln in our 
own land : ' He forded a deep watei-, on an unknown 
bottom ; Init he left a brido^e for his successors, over 
which the lame could hobble, and the blind might 
grope their way.' 

So, therefore, ^ve rear this statue of him, for others 
to see when we are dead. We touch no line to softer 
grace than that it had. We m<ndd no feature, and 
fashion no limVj, to give it a dignity which it did not 
possess. We leave the man to stand as he was, and 
face the Future : — in this natural gesture ; these 
characteristic and rugged lines ; still tall of stature, 
and tough of sinew, as wdien he l)ore our trembling 
fortunes ; still earnest in face, as when he spoke Ms 
lofty counsels ; still pointing to the words which made 
a people forever free ! And may bronze and granite 
keep their trust, till human eyes have ceased to open, 
and human hearts have ceased to beat ! 

We raise this lasting memorial of him. But let us 
be grateful that his truest monument it is not ours to 
])lan or build. It is in those free and ennobling insti- 
tutions which he preserved; in the popular liberties, 
to which he gav^e security ; in the am^^ler welfare, of 
which he made the land the seat. 

Every man who has worthily filled great office, in 
critical times, with large results, leaves trophies behind 
him, and memorials of himself, beside which the mar- 
ble and the metal are poor. Each age that follows 
sees more of his expanding work. Time only cements 
the foundations of his fame. 



29 

111 tlie western corner of the Admiralty square, in 
the city of St. Petei'sburg, stands the celebrated sta- 
tue of Peter the Great ; the horse of bronze, rising 
from a l)lock of Finland granite ; upon it the imperial 
rider, his head crowned with laurel, his face turned 
toward that river Neva whose currents he curbed to 
make a site for his fresh city ; his hand stretched out, 
as if it \vould grasp both sea and land, and shed a 
blessing upon his people. The form is kingly ; and the 
seri)ent, crashed beneath the horse, is only a symbol of 
the conspiracies overcome by him who sits serenely 
upon that. But Russia, itself — which he brought face 
to face with Europe, and opened to the influence of Oc- 
cidental civilization — Russia, with the new life absorbed 
into its vast and ancient frame, and now fast 
develo])ing to results which he could not foresee — is 
the noblest monument to Peter the First. 

Under the stunted limes of Berlin stands tlie colos- 
sal equestrian statue of Frederick Second — with his 
generals and state-officers grouped around him, and 
the figures of Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Pru- 
dence, at the corners of the pedestal ; tke bas-reliefs 
upon the sides picturing memorable scenes in his life. 
But the real monument to him whom Carlyle emphati- 
cally styles the Last of the Kings, is in the Prussia 
which he lifted toward the rank, in freedom and in 
power, which now it liolds ; and Leipsic, and Sadowa, 
and the treaty of Prague, a Germany compacted, and 
a Europe re-balanced, are the forms which bear up, 
with the solidest. strength, to the stateliest lieight, tlie 
fame of him who laid the base of what lias thus at 
last arisen. 

In the New Church, so called, in the old market 
])lace of the quaint and quiet city of Delft, is placed 



30 



the tomb of William the Silent. A riclily carved and 
decorated canopy, supported on pillars of white and 
black marble, overshadows the sarcophagus on which 
lies stretched, as if in state, the figure of the Prince, 
sculptured also in marble, with the form of the spaniel 
which saved his life from the midnight attack of the 
Spaniards at Hermigny reposing at the feet. Bronze 
figures surround the tomb ; and to one looking on it 
three centuries pass away, and the marvellous career 
of the statesman and hero whose dust there sleeps, 
seems again to pass, in silent pageant, before the eye. 
But the true monument of William of Nassau is still 
in the country which he saved from oppression, whose 
armies he created, whose liberties he guarded, whose 
children wept in the streets when he died, whose reli- 
gion and laws he left supreme. 

And so, while we erect this l)ronze, and while others 
like it may hereafter l)e raised, in other cities, and 
other years, the mightiest and most duralde memorial 
of him whom we tlius honor shall be in that brio:hten- 
ed civilizcitiou, in our land and in others, of ^vhich his 
work was one condition. You, to whom now this 
statue is entrusted, will guard it well ; we doubt it 
not. The city will guard it, and be only prouder of 
its possession as other decades succeed to this. But if 
violence should harm, or time should waste, or convul- 
sions of nature should shake it down, the city, and the 
land, will never want mementos of him whom the 
bronze portrays, while the iuiiuence of the years of 
his great administration passes on into the future ; 
while the government which he rescued, and the liber- 
ties which he widened, abide on the earth ; while our 
descendants, of any generation, shall be al)le to say, as 
we do now : ' The people govern in America ; and 



31 

from sea to sea, from the Lakes to the Gulf, no inno- 
cent person wears a cliain !' 

That this Lirger and no])ler memorial of him shall 
thus continue, let us resolve ! Let this service and 
scene bring forth their fruit, in each of us, in a new 
consecration to the ends which he sought, and for his 
fidelity to Avhich he died. You have heard alread}', 
from the lips of the President, the touching and 
majestic words with which his second Inaugural Ad- 
di'ess was close<l by this man. Standing now in front 
of his monument, recollecting the dangers which were 
not all buried when his life closed, remembering the 
duties which we owe to the Republic for which he did 
so much, so well, and looking forward over the land 
and into the years which still shall claim our humbler 
work, let us hear, also, those other words, so solemn 
and sul)lime, which fell from him at the service in 
Gettysburg, six years ago the coming month ; and let 
them full on us afresh, as if God touched those tran- 
quil lips, and made them vocal once more ^vith coun- 
sels : — 

" It is for us to 1)6 here dedicated to the OTeat task 
remaining before us, that from the honored dead we 
take increased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in 
vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a new 
birth of freedom ; and that the government of the 
people, by the people, and for the j)eople, shall not 
perish from the earth." 

Until it |)erishes, his work in the world shall never 
fail ! Until it perishes, a nobler memorial than we 
can build shall testify to those who anywhere rejoice 
in the American example of a popular government 



32 



and a regulated Liberty, of the wisdom, and tlie ^\nv\t, 
and the office for mankind, of Al)raliam Lincoln ! 



At the close of Dr. Storrs' Address, Messrs. F. Stein mid 

C. G. Lockwood, led the assembly in sincrino; the hymn, 

" My Country, 'tis of thee, 
" Sweet land of Liberty, 
" Of tliee I sing ;" etc., 

to the time " America;" after which the President of the day 
announced that the appointed services were ended. 

The vast multitude of persons who had been brought 
together, on foot and in carriages, bv an occasion so interesting 
and so memorable, was then promptly and quietly dis]>ersed. 
And the work of erecting and dedicating this permanent and 
noble popular memorial of President Lincoln, in the City of 
Brooklyn — a work which had been marked by singnhir suc- 
cess, from its very inception — had been successfully and 
honorably completed. 



H. M. Gardner, Jr., Printer, cor, Fulton and Yorl< Sts» 



FJe'!3 



